Autonym (semantics)

An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, or linguistic community in question; it is their self-designated name for themselves, their homeland, or their language.

An exonym (from Greek: , 'outer' + , 'name'; also known as xenonym) is an established, ''non-native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used only outside that particular place, group, or linguistic community. Exonyms exist not only for historico-geographical reasons but also in consideration of difficulties when pronouncing foreign words.

For instance, is the endonym for the country that is also known by the exonym ''Germany'' in English, in Spanish and in French.

Naming and etymology

The terms ''autonym'', ''endonym'', ''exonym'' and ''xenonym'' are formed by adding specific prefixes to the Greek root word (, 'name'), from Proto-Indo-European '.

The prefixes added to these terms are also derived from Greek:

*endonym: (, 'within');
*exonym: (, 'outside');
*autonym: (, 'self'); and
*xenonym: (, 'foreign').

The terms ''autonym'' and ''xenonym'' also have different applications, thus leaving ''endonym'' and ''exonym'' as the preferred forms.

Marcel Aurousseau, an Australian geographer, first
TOC
used the term ''exonym'' in his work ''The Rendering of Geographical Names'' (1957). The term ''endonym'' was subsequently devised as a retronymic antonym for the term ''exonym''.

Typology

Endonyms and exonyms can be divided in three main categories:

* endonyms and exonyms of place names (toponyms),
* endonyms and exonyms of human names ( anthroponyms), including names of ethnic groups ( ethnonyms), localised populations (demonyms), and individuals (personal names),
* endonyms and exonyms of language names ( glossonyms).

Endonyms and exonyms of toponyms

As it pertains to geographical features, the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names defines:

*Endonym: "Name of a geographical feature in an official or well-established language occurring in that area where the feature is located."
* Exonym: "Name used in a specific language for a geographical feature situated outside the area where that language is spoken, and differing in its form from the name used in an official or well-established language of that area where the geographical feature is located."

For example, ''India'', '' China'', ''Egypt'', and ''Germany'' are the English-language exonyms corresponding to the endonyms ( hi, भारत, label=none), (), ( ar, مَصر, label=none), and ', respectively.

Endonyms and exonyms of glossonyms

In the case of endonyms and exonyms of language names (glossonyms), '' Chinese,'' ''German'', and '' Dutch'', for example, are English-language exonyms for the languages that are endonymously known as (), , and ''Nederlands'', respectively.

Exonyms in relation to endonyms

By their relation to endonyms, all exonyms can be divided into three main categories:

* those derived from different roots, as in the case of Germany for ;
* those that are cognate words, diverged only in pronunciation or orthography;
* those that are fully or partially translated (a calque) from the native language.

Sometimes, a place name may be unable to use many of the letters when transliterated into an exonym because of the corresponding language's lack of common sounds. Māori, having only one liquid consonant, is an example of this here.

Cognate exonyms

London (originally la, Londinium), for example, is known by the cognate exonyms:

* in Catalan, Filipino, French, Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish;
* () in Greek;
* in Dutch;
* in Italian, Maltese, Romanian, Sardinian and Turkish;
* in Albanian;
* in Czech and Slovak;
* in Polish;
* in Māori;
* in Icelandic;
* in Irish;
* in Scottish Gaelic;
* in Welsh;
* in Finnish;
* () in Persian;
* () in Armenian.

Translated exonyms

An example of a translated exonym is the name for the Netherlands ( in Dutch) used, respectively, in German (), French (), Italian (), Spanish (), Irish (), Portuguese () and Romanian (), all of which mean "Low Countries". However, note that the endonym is singular, while all the aforementioned translations are plural.

Native and borrowed exonyms

Exonyms can also be divided into native and borrowed, e.g., from a third language. For example, the Slovene exonyms (Vienna) and (Venice) are native, but the Avar name of Paris, (''Parizh'') is borrowed from Russian (''Parizh''), which comes from Polish , which comes from Italian .

A substantial proportion of English-language exonyms for places in continental Europe are borrowed (or adapted) from French; for example:

* Belgrade ( sr, Београд, translit=Beograd);
* Bucharest ( ro, București);
* Cologne (german: Köln);
* Florence ( it, Firenze);
* Milan ( it, Milano);
* Munich (german: München);
* Naples ( it, Napoli / nap, Napule);
* Navarre ( es, Navarra / eu, Nafarroa);
* Prague ( cs, Praha); and
* Rome ( it, Roma).

Typical development of exonyms

According to James Matisoff, who introduced the term ''autonym'' into linguistics: "Human nature being what it is, exonyms are liable to be pejorative rather than complimentary, especially where there is a real or fancied difference in cultural level between the ingroup and the outgroup." For example, Matisoff notes, "an opprobrious term indicating mixed race or parentage" is the Palaung name for Jingpo people and the Jingpo name for Chin people; both the Jingpo and Burmese use the Chinese word ('' zh, c=野人, s=, t=, p=, l=wild men, savage, rustic people, labels=no'') as the name for Lisu people.

Exonyms develop for places of significance for speakers of the language of the exonym. Consequently, many European capitals have English exonyms, for example:

* Athens ( el, Αθήνα, translit=Athína);
* Belgrade ( sr, Београд, translit=Beograd);
* Bucharest ( ro, București);
* Brussels (french: Bruxelles, nl, Brussel);
* Copenhagen ( da, København);
* Lisbon ( pt, Lisboa);
* Moscow (russian: Москва, translit=Moskva);
* Prague ( cs, Praha);
* Rome ( it, Roma);
* Vienna (german: Wien); and
* Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa).

In contrast, historically less-prominent capitals such as Ljubljana and Zagreb do not have English exonyms, but do have exonyms in languages spoken nearby, e.g. German: and (the latter being obsolete); Italian: ''Lubiana'' and ''Zagabria''. Madrid, Berlin, Oslo, and Amsterdam, with identical names in most major European languages, are exceptions.

Some European cities might be considered partial exceptions, in that whilst the spelling is the same across languages, the pronunciation can differ. For example, the city of Paris is spelled the same way in French and English, but the French pronunciation [] is different from the English pronunciation [].

For places considered to be of lesser significance, attempts to reproduce local names have been made in English since the time of the Crusades. [ ivorno, for instance, was ''Leghorn'' because it was an Italian port essential to English merchants and, by the 18th century, to the British Navy; not far away, Rapallo, a minor port on the same sea, never received an exonym.

In earlier times, the name of the first tribe or village encountered became the exonym for the whole people beyond. Thus, the Romans used the tribal names (Greek) and (Germanic), the Russians used the village name of '' Chechen'', medieval Europeans took the tribal name ''Tatar

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases